Many school systems now offer an option of attending online classes either in conjunction with a students school year classes or during summer break. Though this opportunity may presumably appear to provide many advantages, there are many typically unacknowledged resulting consequences that lead me to argue that this type of schooling does not compare to hands on learning in the classroom. Students would not benefit nearly as much from online classes than in the classroom as it allows easy potential for students to struggle to comprehend material but lack teacher assistance, education at home provides far more accessibility to distractions and cheating than in a supervised classroom, and requiring students to spend long hours comprehending difficult material can become increasingly straining and taxing on both the mind and body.

Online courses are not beneficial to students learning as without an educational professional present to guide them, students can easily struggle to comprehend difficult concepts. Generally one may assume the ability for students taking online courses to work at their own pace makes it more valuable than structured and scheduled lessons in the classroom, but this is usually not the case. I myself enrolled in an online geometry course during one summer and although there were occasional scheduled conference calls, a majority of the course was done independently and free of assistance. Working at your own pace isn't so appealing once a student has been presented an overwhelming amount of difficult material to learn with no other guidance, requiring many more hours dedicated to struggling to comprehend material than if they had a qualified teacher present. Additionally, these courses usually require a specific amount of learning to be completed each day, so the idea a student can leisurely complete assignments is a huge misconception. Although I recognize other students experiences taking online courses may have been different than mine, the structure of my class is a good representation of what most of the other online courses in my county would have been like.

Another reason online classes are not as beneficial as they may appear is that students face constant distraction and opportunity to cheat at home than if they were in the classroom. It's easy to think there would actually be less distraction in the quiet of your own home than classrooms that can sometimes be full of loud and troublesome students, subsequently making it hard to focus at times. However, schools often implement strict regulations on phones, food, and talking as they know how much these things can be a distraction to a learning environment. At home with no teacher supervision, students may find themselves easily distracted by electronics and the accessibility to get up and do other things in the comfort of their own house. This results it it taking even longer to get through material and presents the risk of students missing out on important information. Moreover, without teacher supervision it may become tempting for the student to cheat on assignments as it is far more easy to get away with and there would be no one present to enact consequences. I've heard many student discussing taking online courses for the sole purpose that they know they can find answer keys and other materials to cheat online. In my particular situation, only my midterm and final exam were monitored in a public setting, leaving opportunity for other students to cheat on any test, quiz, or other classwork assignment. I agree cheating is inevitable in any educational circumstances, but it is far more prevalent in unsupervised situations.

Lastly, online courses typically require a large amount of material to be learned each day requiring long hours at the computer and subsequent negative health effects considering the strain on the students mind and body. Although this isn't accurate for online classes done in conjunction with the school year, the summer geometry class I took often resulted in me working on the computer for upwards of eight hours everyday. Excluding the obvious result that it was a great sacrifice of my time, this amount of length on any electronic results in long term damage to health. One can argue students are on their phones for many hours anyway, but in combination with having to read a screen for hours, the student must also be actively trying to learn difficult material, which becomes extremely straining on the eyes and taxing on the mind. Additionally, even taking into consideration that many school systems now implement technology in the classroom, this is still far less than a consistent full day on the computer required by online courses. By taking an online course, you agree to sacrifice your time and health.

School educators were trained to provide the best possible education for a student, and by eliminating that invaluable resource by taking an online course, you have know placed an unqualified student in charge of their own self directed education. Any presumable benefit provided by an online course, has a subsequent consequence that is usually not considered. To this day I regret enrolling in that geometry course, as it moved at too fast of a pace to where I consequently find myself struggling to grasp those concepts today. Online courses simply cannot effectively supplement for a students present education in the classroom. Taking online courses does far more harm than any good to students by allowing easy potential for students to struggle to comprehend difficult material without teacher guidance, education at home provides easy accessibility to distractions and cheating without supervision, and long hours of comprehending massive amounts of material can leave the mind and body drained and exhausted. Teachers will always provide the best possible learning experience, and students should always take advantage of that resource.